Hi Neil C. I have to agree with Frankenstone, one of my great fellow students right here at the wonderful medical school of St. James. You can have your "big 3;" I have said it a few times now, and I will say it again. I am more than happy and most eager to put my USMLE I, II and III scores up against anyone from the "big 3," Harvard or anywhere else for that matter. Others may be impressed by the established Caribbean medical schools, but I am certainly not. Huge class sizes vs small class sizes (15 students MDI), education quality there vs here (it is up to the student to get the most out of it), facilities great vs decent (I am happy to overecome that challenge), huge debt vs reasonable debt. Take the big 3, or whatever they are called, and I'll take St. James. You folks do soooo much hooting and hollering about the big 3, so let's compete. The USMLE is a great indicator of knowledge, and its scores are relevant. I am going to post mine when I take the test right here. Then we can see how "wonderful" the big 3 students are. I can smoke those students, every single one of them (harvard, hopkins, wah u - I could care less; they do not impress me). I am not afraid to compete against anyone. I am out to be the best medical school student on the planet. # 1. How many of the students at the big 3 are after that. Yeah, it's true, it may never happen, but then again it may; at least I am striving to be # 1. How many losers are going to come out of the big 3. The answer: a lot. Their students, most of them, are mediocre. They go to the US as loser students, embarass the medical prosfession, and then decredibilize the Caribbean medical schools. Then you blame us. They have had countless students who have absolutely sucked, and still you blame us. We should have started this school a long time ago, considering how sorry their students have been and still are. Some of their (big 3) students are good, and I certainly give them credit. But, a lot of them suck! I want to become the best cardiac surgeon on the planet, and it is going to happen! I could care less whether you believe it or not. The fact is I work hard! Just as hard as anyone, and a lot harder than most. It is an insult to me, when I hear people talk badly about my school, and my fellow students. I am not going to tolerate it. You want to talk trash about St. James, then put up your USMLE scores and your grades. I take all challengers. Have a nice day!

delusions of grandeur

We'll see.

someone said 'starry eyed' and that is exactly that. i also wanted to beat harvard students on step one and was all gunho about med school...i studied harder than i ever had and did fairly well in school but not near the top 10%

a little bolus of sanity for you:

step one is another standardized test and guess what? if you didn't blow the SAT out of the water to get into an ivy league school where you also blew the MCAT and managed to get in the US what are the chances of blowing the USMLE out of the water?

its nice to be motivated but a dose of reality is also good. again no school bashing, i ususally just post stuff i wish i had thought of back when i first started...and also to piss off shock and awe...

__________________
OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

Well, a "bolus of sanity" is nice, but overpessimism is disheartening. No one goes to teh carrib because they "blew the MCAT out of the water", if they had done that they would be in US schools. However, I know a lot of people, from my school and many other who do well above average on the USMLE regardless. The OP may be young and overzealous, but to make it seem like his chances of doing well on the USMLE are hopeless because he didn't do well on the SAT or MCAT isn't right.

__________________
BTS4202
St. Christopher's COM
4th Year
http://www.mdparadise.com

"If there really is a God, He has a lot of explaining to do"
- Dennis Leary

first of all, sbturner needs to get a dose of reality. best cardiac surgeon on the planet? out of st. james? should i die laughing now or later? that's not even the point.............i am a college student right now in new jersey, and i might even end up coming to st. james...............but face the facts:

1. the 'big 3' are the big three because they're accredited and are approved in all the states..........st. james is not..........

2. st. james isn't necessarily a bad school...........and the big 3 aren't the best either.......

3. people come to the caribbean or overseas medical schools because it's a '2nd' chance for them to become doctors..........b/c us medical schools wasn't feasible for whatever reason......(low mcat's, grades) whatever.....

4. and most importantly, know your role...............being in the caribbean means you won't get into a HIGHLY COMPETETIVE residency. it DOES NOT matter if you have great usmle scores..........they matter, don't get me wrong, but they ARE NOT THE ONLY DETERMINANT in getting residency. some residencies DO NOT TAKE IMG's! it's a fact, some residency programs will not take them NO MATTER WHAT UR USMLE score is. did you do some research? do you know the percentages of IMG's who get into highly competetive residencies like dermatology, radiology?!?! etc.

5. it's highly competetive for a harvard grad to get into a cardiac surgery residency program.............and they're from HARVARD........

you can 'compete' all you want.............if ur from america, you should know how difficult it is to get into harvard, you need close to a 4.0 gpa and like 1450 SAT's just to be competetive..................LET'S FACE IT........you weren't competetive then, that's why you're in the CARIBBEAN!!

USMLE's won't change the fact that you screwed up somewhere and were left behind by the superior students who are in the US schools........

like i said, i'm not bashing here......but face reality...........95% of IMG's will end up in fp, int medicine, pediatrics, psych , etc. residencies because that's what they are qualified for. do some great doctors come out of the caribbean? sure they do! i will go to the caribbean most likely, and maybe even st. james...........but please............let's face reality...... being an IMG.........they don't look at us img's the same way they do US doctors........WHY? because we went somewhere which is less competetive and easier to do...........you can' t CORRECT being subpar to US medical students by just doing well on USMLE........learning and becoming a doctor is a long process, not just the be-all-end-all USMLE!

is it possible to score higher than a harvard grad on USMLE.........of course it is! but will you get the residency ahead of a harvard grad out of st. james?!?!??! NOT A CHANCE IN *ELL, SO DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH AND PLEASE DO SOME RESEARCH, KNOW YOUR ROLE, AND BE REALISTIC.................you're going to need to be realistic if your going to be a doctor............

AND ALSO, THE RESIDENCY PROGRAMS KNOW THE 'BIG 3' SCHOOLS FROM THE CARIBBEAN, SO THEY WILL TAKE students from there ahead of the new schools. why?? because they've had experiences from them before. and even if you score a 99 on ur USMLE's............trust me.........there are HUNDREDS, YES HUNDREDS of students who can and do the same every year..............so your 99 percentile is still one of the many............and being from st. james.........preference will not be given............even if you 'compete' and 'blow it out of the water'.........there are hundreds of students like that..........just like in high school...........you thought that a 1500 SAT score was high??? every year there are thousands of those too!!

there's a reason people go to established schools and schools with a 'brand' image............because they're already proven themselves.........just like in anything in life..........why do people buy toyotas and hondas? because they've PROVEN reliability............so even though there might be cars just as reliable.........toyotas and hondas get 'PREFERENCE' just because of there years of proving and reliability. just like that, the medical schools which have proven themselves get preference............first us schools............then the big 3.........then the rest.............it's just fair. so even with 'perfect 99' board scores........you still don't stand a chance.......

please nobody take this as bashing.........but just a dose of reality.........because like i said, i know i might end up going to st. james..............and there's nothing wrong with it...........but it's better to understand now and expect reality than to shoot for something which will never happen...............or is unlikely to happen. good luck to all!

SbTurner talks about the "small class sizes" of SJ being some great advantage.

Please.....small class sizes of 40-50 students at a proven, coast-to-coast approved school like Saba are indeed great.

Classes of 15 students at an unproven dump like SJ are indicative of only one thing: there were only 15 people dumb or desparate enough to go to SJ.

Best cardiac surgeon on the planet.......hmmm,that's gonna be a helluva of a bio......guy who couldn't even get into a decent carib school dominates the medical profession. you're too delusional to even respond to further. Parth is so right, you guys have deluded yourself into thinking you can pull yourself out of your ditch with one test score, ain't gonna happen even if you do rock it. SJ has ZERO credibility as a school.

parth 1983 and bob2K you guys are really too kind to even think that St James students will even past step 1

if you only get a glimpse of the pedagogy at the school

the way the classes are held


the amount of curving

the attempted and real bribery of teachers

**** is correct when he says we will weed them out at step 1

Thanks for the support rrod. No hard feelings against anyone, it is simply my belief. Best wishes!

Bob2k I put the challenge to you and your classmates before, now we will see. All you do is talk. Let's see what happens. Best wishes!